Washington, D.C.’s post-pandemic struggles are no secret. Last summer, the Washington Post’s Paul Schwartzman called the city “a wounded rendition of its once robust self” as many federal and private-sector workers in the region continue to work remotely, either full time or part-time. Ridership on the region’s rail network, the Metro, remains barely half what it was in 2019, causing budget shortfalls for public transit agencies. While ridership was up across the system roughly 40 percent in 2023, that still wasn’t nearly enough. Without those commuters, it is harder to sustain the density of commerce and attractions that make downtowns safe and vibrant. To make matters worse, last year, violent crime rose in the city while it fell nearly everywhere else in America.

Into this maelstrom has stepped Ted Leonsis, the billionaire owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals. In recent months, Leonsis has threatened to exacerbate the city’s problems by taking the sports teams out of the city, unless it gives him what he wants: a new stadium.

In December, Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced plans to build a new, $2 billion stadium complex for the Wizards and Capitals in the wealthy D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, funded largely with public money. Both teams currently play in a perfectly serviceable 27-year-old Chinatown arena in D.C. that Leonsis has deemed inadequate. Perhaps figuring that recent fevered apoplexy about the state of downtown Washington gives him extra leverage, Leonsis has chosen to play Alexandria and D.C. off against each other to get as many public dollars for himself as possible, luring the two municipalities into a race to the bottom. Though the city’s existing problems are very real, D.C., especially, should not fall for it. However painful it might seem in the short run, the District should let the teams walk.

The question is not whether D.C. has ongoing challenges related to pandemic-era changes in work and living practices, but whether the presence of the Wizards, consistently one of the worst franchises in the NBA, and the Capitals, of the increasingly niche NHL, make much if any difference in this calculus. It is also a matter of whether the teams are worth........

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